Only Canterbury stand in the way of Otago’s greatest season.
Otago dispatched Bay of Plenty 41-17 in Dunedin on Friday night in front of 10,764 noisy fans.
Canterbury dominated Hawke’s Bay in the second half to win 43-19 in the other semifinal in Christchurch on Saturday night.
That has set up a fascinating final between two old rivals.
Canterbury have secured a home venue for Saturday’s final and set the benchmark through the first half of the campaign.
Historically, they have had the wood on Otago.
But their neighbours are running hot.
Otago have strung together seven consecutive wins in the NPC. It is the first time they have done that since 1998, which happens to be the last time they won the title.
They have also secured the Ranfurly Shield for the summer and have locked away the Mike Gibson, Lin Colling and Donald Stuart Memorial trophies as well as the Payne Trophy.
If they can win the NPC title, it will be the first time the province has done the Ranfurly Shield-NPC double.
Otago finished ninth last year.
Expectations were on the low side at the start of the season. Anyone giving serious thought to a double in 2025 would have been sized-up for a snug-fitting jacket.
Those expectations spiked following the thrilling win over Wellington in round three and departed the atmosphere when Otago edged Canterbury 38-36 to claim the Log o’ Wood in round eight.
That was Canterbury’s first loss of the season.
After that, everybody north of the Waitaki River knew just how classy halfback Dylan Pledger and flanker Lucas Casey were and how threatening Otago could be.
Arguably, they are the favourites for the final.
Canterbury will be without superb hooker George Bell and lock Sam Darry, who featured strongly in the semifinal win over Hawke’s Bay. They will join the All Blacks, which removes some quality from the pack.
Otago first five Cameron Millar got poked in the eye during the win against the Steamers, but he is good to go.
He has morphed from the white-gloved traffic controller he was at the start of the campaign to a crazed-looking daredevil at the wheel of a monster truck. Suddenly, he is running the ball and hitting gaps as well as slotting conversions and penalties with unerring accuracy.
Centre Josh Timu and exciting outside back Finn Hurley are on the doubtful list, though. Hurley sustained an ankle complaint and Timu has a knee injury.
Human steamroller Christian Lio-Willie must be a candidate for NPC player of the year and Otago are lucky to have the No 8. He should probably be joining the All Blacks this week.
Fullback Sam Gilbert is on a mission to catch every towering punt coming his way before he heads off to Ireland.
Winger Jona Nareki empties the tank every week. He has made some thundering tackles and crucial turnovers. His kicking game has proved valuable too.
And coach Mark Brown has squeezed every drop of talent from his charges.
That said, Canterbury will present a significant challenge.
One-test All Black Dallas McLeod scored twice in six minutes to help ice a comfortable win for Canterbury in the semifinal.
They were pretty ruthless when they got into a scoring position.
They did miss quite a few tackles early, though. And that will not have escaped the attention of the Otago team, who play a high-octane game.
